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Gripper brands
On the gripper page and grip equipment page there are lists of company names. The aim here is to give you a little background on some of the more well-known gripper brands. *Ironmind *Beefbuilder / Thor *Robert Baraban *Heavy Grips *David Horne's Vulcan Ironmind - Foremost among among them is Ironmind and their Captain of Crush grippers. Ironmind, owned by Randall Strossen, produce as we know a broad spectrum of weightlifting and strength equipment. Many such pieces have become the standard by which other items can be compared. But, especially among the 'grip community', the Captain's of Crush are 'it'. All other gripper brands get tagged with 'compared to Captain's of Crush' or similar. Comparisons are made in both finish/quality and percieved strength - as in 'like a CoC 3'. Those wishing a more in-depth insight are directed to read Ironmind's book on the topic 'Captain's of Crush - Grippers: what they are and how to close them'. Beefbuilder/Thor (aka Warren Tetting Grippers) - If the Ironmind brand is the grip world's Rolls Royce then Beefbuilders et al are our Landrover / Hummer. Tough, no frills and as strong as you could ever need and more. Produced by Warren Tetting, as close to the father of modern grippers as we get, they don't have an overly polished finish, little or no chrome but they do get the job done. The Beefbuilders brand is sold via Weightlifters Warehouse and Thor etc are brought more directly from Warren himself. As well as making usuable grippers Warren has produced some one offs and custom models which are truly freaky. One offs and specials include the Mashmonster series (see www.mashmonster.com) and others. One such item has been said as requiring in excess of 1800lbs to close. Warren has been making, assembling and producing grippers for longer than I care to mention. Robert Baraban - based in Austria, Robert entered the market a few years ago. In the US direct sales are, I think, all via the Gripper Superstore. To my knowledge Robert has local companies produce volume levels of the handles and springs and them assembles them himself. More recently he expanded into a few other items of strength equipment. One such item and something of a bone of contention was a more or less direct copy of David Horne's Vulcan gripper. It is, of course, arguble that there is very little which is new but side-by-side comparisons seem to indicate that other than using a laser cutter it was so produced as to mimic directly another companies product. Heavy Grips - owned by Bill Morrison.Using the analogy above HG grippers are our Walmart of brands. The number of grip and strength web outlets reselling them on, via a wholesale arrangement, out-numbers pretty much all the other brands put together. By Bill's own admission the parts are made and assembled outside the US of A there the company is based (China??). The quality, while lower than those mentioned above, is still of a superior level to so-called grippers produced by well-known sport shop chains. They still use a metal knurled handle, decently strong spring and so on. We've seen some brands come and go in recent years and these include FBBC (Fat Bastard Barbell Company) grippers On the rise is Wade Gillinghams newest creation GHP (Gillingham High Performance).